*** The 2012 Gym Rats Thread ***

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Last night's session:

squats:

60x10
80x5
100x5
120x4
130x1
140x1
150x1
160x1
165x1
170x1
170x1
170x1

Front grip reverse lunge

60x5 x4

Barbell split squat

60x5 x4

Isometric roll outs 15s hold. x5



Today:

Bench

60x10
80x8
100x4
110x2
120x1
125x1
120x1
120x1
125x0 (don't know what happened, just really bad form/set up)
125x1 (easy as pie! :/)

CGBP:

60x5
80x5
85x5
90x5

Chins:

BWx8
25kgx5
27.5x5
30x5

Chest supported DB row:

32x8 x4

Isometric pallof press 15s x4
 
Anyone know any magical sprays/injections that will help me get huge in less than a week?

Quite happy to consume 50,000 cals a day if needed.
 
Guys,

I’m getting a bit confused.

For the last 3 months I have been doing a Full Body workout, but according to my friend haven’t made as much progress as I should have. I was only doing it twice a week, but upped it to 3 times.

To be honest with out I wanted to move away from one exercise per body part so a split appealed.

As my friend who has been training for about 5 years now, knows me personally and I had never really tried his methods, I though OK, no more low frequency stuff lets try it his way.

As I explained before he thinks as a beginner you simply cannot make progress doing low frequency work. Its just lazy. (in his words)

He put a routine together for me, but I think it is all wrong.

Its basically a 4 day split of some kind, where I am dipping, pull up alternated with chin ups, barbel curls etc 4 times a week, and hitting other things like chest and shoulders twice.

Now I went this Monday and did the first day, on the second day, my shoulders where completely frazzled form the dips, there was no way I could do more dips to failure and couldn’t even set the weights on the bar I had no energy.

So I have given up. He says my body will get used to the workload and I’m wrong to give up.

The problem is the internet is fine with hitting muscle groups once a week and even you guys say the same. My friends just keeps telling me this is lazy, and I will never brake through plateaus and always stay as a beginner if I am only hitting muscle 4 times a month.

As I’m looking to start fresh on Monday, I went and I found this and thought it looked good.

You guys say it looks fine, but my friend still claims its just plan lazy. I should be doing that 3 day split in fact twice in a week.

What makes my friend an authority you ask? Well nothing obviously.

However he has been training for about 5 years and has made immense progress. He knows me so he is a good judge, its just the routine he put together is totally against common wisdom, the volume and frequency is high, and I just cant see how it would work.

Can a beginner really make progress on a 3 day split?

I'm confused. :confused:
 
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What's your diet like?

You should be doing as many compound exercises as possible, they are the ones that involve more than one muscle. Squats, deadlifts, pullups etc. I'm sure someone on here can help you with a routine.

How do you define "not much progress", your body weight? The weights you're lifting? 12 weeks isn't that long in the big scheme of things.
 
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sigma said:
What's your diet like?

You should be doing as many compound exercises as possible, they are the ones that involve more than one muscle. Squats, deadlifts, pullups etc. I'm sure someone on here can help you with a routine.

How do you define "not much progress", your body weight? The weights you're lifting? 12 weeks isn't that long in the big scheme of things.
Click to expand...

Well in 3 months I went from 10kg to 17.5 kg on the bench press.

I went from 8kg shoulder press to 12kg.

All pretty puny I know, he said it was because my volume is just too low, at this point it was just a FB workout 2x a week. I upped it to 3, which didn't feel too much, but then got interested in splits.

So here i am with no direction to go in, because I don't know what routine I'm doing anymore.

Diet is not brilliant, but generally clean.

The problem I have is that I am lifting puny weights and carry a lot of belly fat. Which means I have two goals.

The good thing I found with splits, is the volume is lower on a weights day giving me time for after weights cardio.

On the FB routine, volume too high to have time for cardio as well.
 
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We've already answered this question.

YES YOU CAN MAKE GOOD PROGRESS ON A 3 DAY SPLIT.

If you havn't been making much progress in 3 months maybe you should look at your diet not your workouts as being the problem though.

If you haven't already, read this and this


opethdisciple said:
Its basically a 4 day split of some kind, where I am dipping, pull up alternated with chin ups, barbel curls etc 4 times a week, and hitting other things like chest and shoulders twice.
Click to expand...
Let me guess, legs are once a week? :rolleyes:
 
opethdisciple. Do stronglifts 5x5 or starting strength. do them for a minimum of 12 weeks, i guarantee you will be thrilled with the gains.
 
opethdisciple said:
However he has been training for about 5 years and has made immense progress. He knows me so he is a good judge, its just the routine he put together is totally against common wisdom, the volume and frequency is high, and I just cant see how it would work.

Can a beginner really make progress on a 3 day split?

I'm confused. :confused:
Click to expand...

Your friend may have made good gains on the programme he follows simply because peoples bodies are different and respond to different loadings i.e. his body just suits higher volume work. Then again it could still be sub-optimal and he'd have made even better gains if he'd been following a more conventional programme which does more than apparently just focus on the upper body.

I don't know either him or you and how you will respond to training but generally if you're going to try a programme then you've got to give it at least a couple of months to see if it will work for you. If you keep chopping and changing every week then you're unlikely to ever make much progress.

Finally yes, a beginner can make progress on a 3 day split. There is a reason why Stronglifts (or variations) are popular, it might not be the absolute best programme for each individual as a properly tailored programme might be but as a general starting point it's pretty good.
 
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